Music: Read predictions for Sunday’s Grammy Awards, p. 4
Economy: Tight finances cause students to study abroad less, p. 3
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Football: Chad Jones plans to return to NFL in 2012, p. 5 Friday, Feb. 11, 2011 • Volume 115, Issue 87
Celeste Ansley
Student loan defaulting may rise
Staff Writer
Matthew Albright
Hard Course Faculty Senate identifies University’s most difficult classes based on grades
e: Averag
Every University student has at one time or another pondered which class is the most difficult at LSU. The Faculty Senate has quantified this issue by ranking the University courses with the highest average numbers of D and F grades, as well as “W’s” for classes. Economics 2000 has the highest average DFW rate for the past five years with 34.4 percent, followed by History 1003 with 32.4 percent. While the percentages change year to year, the average percentage list is based on data from 2005 to 2009. Karl Roider, alumni professor who teaches a History 1003 class, said he was surprised to see the western civilization class so high on the list. Roider said the fact that the course is a general education class and is typically taken by underclassmen could be possible explanations for the high DFW percentage. The poor grades are not a trend with Roider’s smaller classes that include older students, where he sees few upperclassmen on Facebook or texting, he said. Ritu Roy, psychology sophomore who took History 1003 as a freshman, said the subject matter could be a cause for the low grades. “A lot of people don’t like history,” Roy said. Roy said the class required a lot of writing, with essay and short-answer tests.
See the rest of the list of hardest classes at lsureveille.com
COURSES, see page 11
Staff Writer
The number of for-profit college students who default on their student loans may increase by more than twofold next year when a new rule takes effect, dwarfing default rates for public and private non-profits. A report issued by the Department of Education last week indicates 11.6 percent of for-profit university students who started repaying their loans in 2008 have defaulted on their loans. That’s almost twice as much as the 6-percent default rate for public institutions and the 4-percent default rate for private non-profits. Public four-year institutions and greater, a category that includes LSU, had a default rate of 4.4 percent. Currently, colleges track borrowers over a period of two years when determining their default rates. In 2008, however, Congress voted to increase the tracking period to three years, according to the Chronicle of Higher Education. The move came after some LOANS, see page 11
STUDENT GOVERNMENT
Committee members survey campus for poorly lit areas Students to contact Facility Services Andrea Gallo Staff Writer
Student Government members walked across campus Thursday evening to find areas of less than desirable lighting. The Senate Committee on Campus Services and Development held a “light walk” to promote student outreach. The walk was led by Sen. Marcus Alexander, College of Humanities and Social Sciences. Participants split into pairs, and each group covered a different section of campus. Alexander will contact the Office of Facility Services and ask
what steps can be taken to add more light will cover more surface area. lighting or fix lighting fixtures that Sen. Cody Wells, University aren’t working. Center for Advising and CounselSpeaker Pro Tempore Aaron ing, said he’d like to see lighting all Caffarel and Sen. Meredith West- the way down North Stadium Drive brook, College of to Mike the Tiger’s Music and Dramatcage. He said the ic Arts, said they west side of Tiger walked through Stadium was also dark areas between poorly lit. the Chancellor’s Sen. Johnae Office and Coates Jefcoat, UCAC, Hall, behind Dodsaid the only light son Auditorium, beby Pleasant Hall tween Lockett Hall Sen. Meredith Westbrook comes from the and Middleton Li- College of Music and Dramatic Arts businesses behind brary and between it, and the entrances Hodges and Hatcher Hall. to Pleasant Hall are dark. She also “In most of the places that were said the Hart lot, the path between dark, there were lights, but they were Kirby-Smith Hall and The 5 and the out,” Westbrook said. area between Broussard Hall and the Caffarel suggested changing the LIGHTING, see page 11 type of lighting in the Quad so one
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‘In most of the places that were dark, there were lights, but they were out.’
CHRISTOPHER LEH / The Daily Reveille
Student Government Speaker Pro Tempore Aaron Caffarel (left) and Sen. Meredith Westbrook map out dimly lit areas along campus Thursday evening.